Horton in Ribblesdale Churchyard species count for Churches Count on Nature 7 June 2026

 6-14 June is "Churches Count on Nature Week", promoted by Caring for God's Acre, the conservation charity for burial grounds across the UK 

At Horton-in-Ribblesdale on Sunday afternoon 7 June 2026, one of the first "churchyard counts" in the Yorkshire Dales took place.  

(There are lots of pictures at the end. I am still writing this post.)

It was Messy Church Sunday and six children from Messy Church and some parents took time off from their indoor artistic work with vicar Revd Stephen Dawson to come outside into the relative cold, and help look for creatures and plants in flower. They joined five members of Craven Conservation Group including local botanist Judith Allinson and entomologist Terry Whitaker. Margaret Barker of Horton Church showed where she, with the team from the church had placed wildflowers and wildflower seeds in previous years. She showed some of the bushes that had been planted. 

Judith observed: "The churchyard grass seems a good mixture of short grass on the paths and cut paths through the grass, then some areas with medium length grass.  And some patches where the grass is rarely cut and has grown very long, and become dominated by the tall "False-Oat-grass" which shades out other plants. The variety of management allows different insects and different plants to live in the different habitats."

They spent about 30 minutes this cold Sunday afternoon (cold after the previous week's heatwave)  looking in the churchyard. The list became: 11 Grasses in flower, 2 Grasslike plants in flower, 24 Herbs in flower, plus a variety of  minibeasts.

Named so far includes

11 grasses:

Sweet Vernal Grass, Downy Oat-grass, Yellow Oat-grass, Meadow Foxtail, Red Fescue

Yorkshire Fog, Rough Meadow-grass, Smooth Meadow-grass,

False Oat-grass, Ryegrass, Cock's-foot 

2 grasslike:

Pendulous sedge, Field Woodrush

24 herbs in flower:

White (5):  

Ox-eye Daisy, Daisy, Spring Whitlow-grass, Common Mouse-ear Chickweed, White Clover

Pink (4):
Red Clover, Herb Robert, Shining Crane's-bill,  Cuckoo flower (aka Mayflower, Ladies smock, Milk maid) 

Orange or brown or greenish (4)

Fox and Cubs, Common sorrel; Ribwort Plantain; Procumbent Pearlwort

Blue (4):

Bird's-eye (Germander) Speedwell. Wall Speedwell, Forget me not, Columbine (Aquilegia)

Yellow (6): 

Cat's - ear  Dandelion, Prickly Sow-Thistle; Groundsel, Meadow Buttercup, Bird's-foot Trefoil

Purple (1):

Bush vetch

1 seven spot ladybird

1 named Moss - Springy Turf Moss

1 named slug (out of four found): Leopard Slug

2 snails: the Garden Snail, and one which might be the Strawberry Snail.

1 Woodlouse we hope to name shortly

1 gall on Germander Speedwell: the  Gall-Midge -Jaapeilla veronicae

3 Birds: Blackbird, Greenfinch and Crow/Rook.

 The three lichens which caught people's attention were: Map Lichen (bright yellow green); White-rim Lichen Lecanora rupicola (now called Glaucomaria  rupicola (White Rim-Lichen) which grows on silica rich rocks such as the slaty material used for the Horton grave stones; and Limestone Firedot Lichen Caloplaca flavescens (now called Variospora flavescens

Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) -probably garden escape or planted at the back churchyard entrance.

Herb Robert on the steps

Ox-eye (Dog) Daisies, Meadow Buttercup , Ribwort Plantain and Common Sorrel

Red Clover

Downy Oat-grass - This is one of the "Indicator species" that can be found in old Dales Hay Meadows. 

Lichen mosaic on one of the Gravestones. Penyghent, one of Yorkshire's thee peaks is seen in the background. The white lichen is Lecanora rupicola
The stone was called "Horton Flags" and there is a good article here about their use by Bill Mitchell here.   In fact there are a variety of new Geological names given to the Silurian and Ordovician rocks whih are quarried at the local quarries at Horton and Helwith Bridge (See article).

Lots more Lecanora rupicola

Ox-eye Daisies  (Dog Daisies)

Margaret Barker (second from left) from Horton Church with three members of Craven Conservation Group

Yorkshire Fog 

Pendulous Sedge

Cat's-ear

The Garden Snail

Pointing out Variospora flavescens (formerly called Caloplaca flavescens) at the church entrance.

Seven Spot Ladybird.  It has a wing that is blackened due to some form of camage.

  Happy "Churches Count on Nature" week 6-14 June.

-----------------It starts today. ----------------
Could you help make a list of some of the plants and animals (Birds, insects etc) which live in your churchyard?
**** Buzz Buzz - Tweet Tweet - Bloom Bloom ****
and give them to the church warden or vicar or priest to send to
https://www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk/churches-count-on-nature-
faqs/ or send in the result yourself?

On Sunday 7th I will be helping at Horton in Ribblesdale churchyard at 2 to -3.15pm recording the flowers, grasses and lichens, insects, spiders slugs and snails in the churchyard - part of a children/family /grown up Messy Church event. (Other children's activities and tea also taking place such as making Father's Day cards). Terry Whitaker, Moth and insect specialist will be coming to help us.

On Wednesday and Thursday I am helping at St Mary's church n Embsay near Skipton. There will be public events there those two days, plus classes of children from Embsay Primary School come to do recording for an hour or two each day.

Here are links to previous events at Embsay

https://rainforest-save.blogspot.com/2024/06/embsay-today-12-june-churches-count-on.html

and Sharow

I would be happy to help others do botanical and and especially lichen recording at Churches near Settle and in North Craven this week - - on any early evening from tomorrow (Sun) to Friday and on Mon and Tue in the daytime.

A rocha UK says that "Last year alone, more than 380 events welcomed 6,000+ participants, who submitted 8,668 records covering 1,670 species, highlighting the remarkable biodiversity found in churchyards across the country. "

Review: Last day of year 7 Lichen survey of SD86

 Review for the year March 2025 to March 2026 

So this is sort of my annual report for my Lichen activities.. I can look at it next year and work out what I did in 2025-early 2026.

I now have 69 monads where I have recorded at least 20 species. (well 19 spp) . That's almost 70 monads. So I have kept up my 10 a year aim. ( I was only at 59 monads this time last year last year). 

The average number of species per quadrat stands at 35.8

I spent some time getting a few squares up to 50 or more species.
The cliffs above Huntworth Common, the field near Settle Reservoir, Kirkby Malham Churchyard.

 The BLS have made the dots in the BLS interactive maps change colour at 10 or more species and at 50 or more species. 

Then the last 3 months I have concentrated on monads near a road, and just doing one (or two) visits so that I could record over 19 species. So the road to Kirby Malham and Airton, and the road over Malham Moor and starting towards Malham now have yellow squares (20 species) on my map of my area following the orignal colour scheme of 2019

I started sending records in to Janet, The BLS data manager, in August 2025 for the hectad. My records needed the locations changing so that they start with the name of the parish. I use

  https://maps.walkingclub.org.uk/admin/north-yorkshire/parishes.html to find this.

By 30 March 2026 I have sent Janet 20 monads - the first 2 rows - to SD8169, I have the first six monads of the next row ready to send and would like to complete the third row

Lichen Events this year.

I did not go to the winter workshop in 2025 (Preston Montford) or 2026 (Preston Montford).

I went to the Autumn Field Meeting in Hebden Bridge Oct 2025, to the BLS Conference in Carlisle (Jan 2026) and to Fort Belan (March 2026) and will be attending the Appleby spring meeting in April 2026.

I failed to organise a lichen day meeting with Allan Pentecost.  I spent a day with Ann Claypole, Sue and Lez at Linton this year - well maybe March 2025. I visited Edith's Wood near Ingleton with Dee and recorded lichens on a branch. . I failed to attend Cumbria meetings. I have talked with Simon Robinson of Settle who has attended Fred's LABs course.

At the BLS Winter meeting they presented me with the Ursula Duncan award  for organising the LCIG meetings which we started 5.5 years ago. That was nice.  It is a bit hard with the feeling "I should have emailed lots of the LCIG people to get them to commit to a date for sorting out talks" hanging over me. Still, from May I might give myself a break this summer and just do them every 2 months or 6 weeks till next September. And use the time to invite lots of guest speakers ready for Autumn 2026 

I have started recording Leptogium gelatinosum, Leptogium pulvinatium and Bagliettoa baldensis  and more this year which has helped with increasing the length of species lists. And looked out for Enchylium tenax ssp cerenoides

Perhaps this coming year I can get my head round Lecidella scabra & Amandinea punctata

As I spend more time sorting lichens, it puts pressure on other activities - Speakers Club, Chairing CCG, Church, Housework (what?)  Eco Explorers, Green Christian website, Settle "News Email - temporary stalling while I decide whether to pay for Mailchimp; Excercise classes/swimming.. taking friends out who stay in care homes etc out, .. and one day going to visit relatives. Hey Ho.

 

Fort Belan - BLS extra early-spring meeting - North-west shore of Mainland Wales on Menai Straights opposite Newborough Warren

 Mon 16 - Friday 19  March 2026

We had a wonderful time. The event was organised by Eluned Smith. In the end 14 of us were resident.

John, Maxine, Tracy, Philippa, Judith(me), Raymond, Sue, Eluned, the Shropshire group (Mary, Eric, Susan-Mary, Simon, Mark, Eluned  and two local people came Julie and Susan. 

Fort Belan was built in the late 1775 as a fort to defend the Menai Straits -at the time the American Civil War

Quoting Wikipedia: 

Situated at the tip of the Dinlle Peninsula, the windblown, north-westernmost point of the Welsh mainland, the fort is cut off twice a day by the incoming tide. (Judtih adds:You drive to the coastal village and iron age fort and shingle ridge and dunes at Dinas Dinlle, then follow a bumpy road (the old airstrip of the airport) for two miles. The fort itself and grounds are private. )

The fort was built in 1775 for a reported cost of £30,000^[2][3] (equivalent to £4.5 million in 2023),^[4] by Thomas Wynn, then MP for Caernarfonshire and later to become Lord Newborough. He was worried about the vulnerability of Britain's coastline to attack, particularly because of the recently begun American War of Independence. Fort Belan was the only purpose-built fort of the American Revolution on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean.^[5] It guards a narrow passage of 35 m (115 ft) width.^[6]

 Whilst we had to drive through some rain and cloud to get there on the Monday, Days Tuesday to Friday had sun and warm weather. 

There are two sets of buildings: One block is the  Fort with outside walls, inner walls and courtyard and moat and mini orchard. the second block is "The dock"  which is U shaped covering a similar area but the courtyard part has a lawn  and the dock- an inlet with two or three boats docked. 

The place is now used as about seven holiday cottages. Each cottage has a piano (in tune) in its lounge. The owner especially likes to organise groups of people to meet up and play music... but she is encouraging other interest groups to come and stay and was pleased to welcome us coming to look at lichens.

She had two music friends visiting her, staying in another of the cottages I presume - and the three of them enjoyed playing tomusic together.

I was lucky to stay in Dock Cottage - and this is the view from the kitchen, looking south east. At low tide the shingle in the inlet is exposed and I watched oyster catchers, a white egret and a wader on different mornings. At high tide this lagoon fills up, 

The walls are made out of a great variety of stone - limestones, conglomerate, volcanic type rocks, sandstones, bricks - making it a fun, but challenging to predict which lichen would grow where ..

 

We looked at lichens:

On the variety of rocks in the walls, and at mortar and soil in the cracks of the walls

Including walls rising from the sea (Caloplaca  marina)

On the grass in the cannon firing area (Peltigera canina)

On the cement and tarmac causeway that gets covered for an hour at high tide (John found Lichina sp) On the tarmac - Xanthoparmelia conspersa

On the pebbles and rocks near high tide level, (Ramalina siliquosa and several mystery species)

Hydropunctaria (Verrucaria)  maura

On the young trees in the new orchard:  Physcia aipolea, and on the walls: Bilimbia sabulatorum  

Glaucomaria (formerly Lecanora) rupicola

Lecanora rupicola

On the flags and path in the courtyard .. well, one day  I am going to write a mini-talk/post on that

On  wooden fence posts that gave with John and Maxine and Tracy and other people's help - an excellent resource for teaching me how to recognise species on lignum (old worked wood) including Amandinea punctata, Lecanora confusa, Xanthoria polycaulon and both Flavoparmelias, 

We had three full days there. On the second day, Eluned had planned a trip inland to a wood part owned and managed by a relation of hers, who showed us round, and to the "Powder Store" Nature reserve Beddgellert. through old woodland up to higher rocks of various igneous origins. A small group of us attended this - whilst many in the party were so happy at the fort they just stayed there. 

They could look at a lichen, take it back to the microscope room we had set up, and then go out and find it again if needed.

Or just go for pleasant walks looking at the sea or shingle. At night we went out with our UV torches to check out lichens by UV.  and we saw the twinkling lights of Caernarfon and Bangor in the distance.

I prepared a powerpoint talk for the LCIG group when we came back of my first 24 hours - mostly species on the walls, which I recorded. On day I would like to write about "Lichens on Lignum - the fence posts" -(as an exercise to teach myself)  ready for next week's LCIG talk.  .. but .. it is still on my wish list.

BLS 2026 Winter Meeting at Carlisle: Part 2: Saturday

BLS 2026 Winter Meeting at Carlisle: - Part 1 Fri

BLS 2026 Winter Meeting, Carlisle: - Part 3 Sun - Cemetery Visit

BLS 2026 Winter Meeting at Carlisle: - Part 2 - Sat: this post

I find myself not sleeping too well the night after after the Friday meal due to waking with leg cramp. But what a nice spacious room it is. And I can read my newly acquired book "Gut" from the vast cellared bookshop opposite Tullie House..  I get up and made myself a cup of tea and eat the hotel bedroom biscuit. That is enough for breakfast! I set off for Tullie House 300 m away, but call in at the Cathedral 150m away first. - Really blessed with this central location!

Carlisle Cathedral has been on the radio this previous week - as part of a competition to vote for the best Stained Glass Window out of a choice of the top twelve windows of English Cathedrals. So I am curious to see inside.

The choir stalls are in the centre of the cathedral, and a guide is showing a lady the misericords.. we then go round to the side and he draws open a very tall curtain to reveal a huge panel of pictures showing the life of St Augustine (The Cathedral was built as an Augustinian Priory in 1133 )

Then under an arch, along a short stretch of Abbey Street and though the gate into Tullie House Gardens.  The air was filled with thte fragrance of sweet smelling white flowers.. some sort of "Sweet Box", Sarcococca sp  pictured here looking back towards the gate

The conference is about to start.  President Fay Newbery is at the front:- "Another  Amazing Year" she says.

Various committee members present reports. We vote for committee members. We vote for trustees on council -  two restanding ones and two new ones.

Mary Steer (right in the picture below) becomes our new president.

Then Mary has a new task - to present the Ursula Duncan Award.  Ursula Duncan wrote the standard British "Lichen text /key" published in 1970 with black and white line drawings. The BLS gives an award in her name to people who have contributed to lichenology . I remember at the first BLS AGM I attended over 10 years ago it was given to Ishpi Blatchley for her work in surveying churchyards.  We had had to keep it quiet from her that she would be receiving it. 

As Mary started talking about the LCIG groups and the LABS groups.. and how many Zoom sessions we had held over the past five years since October 2020, it suddenly dawned on me who was getting it this year. 

Then it was lunch time. I ate in the Tullie cafe and sat with Sue and Les Knight and Allan Pentecost and met lots of other people. Then a quick glace at the displays again

Joseph Halda from the Czech Republic had brought
some of the beautiful ceramic models that he makes. 
In the foreground is Dibaeis baeomyces

Looking at the poster display

 In the tea break I photographed the Acarospora smaragdula
on the Tullie House wall next to the gate on Abbey Street.

We had talks including one  by Les Knight on crusts on walls in Swaledale, and one by James Paton on crusts on his door steps in Edinburgh

We had to pack up by 5pm to let the Tullie House staff clean up the building.  

I walked with Lesley from Otley and Allan Pentecost towards the station, as they had trains to catch. All the cafes and bars were noisy and heaving with people. So we went to the station and bought drinks at the Smiths shop there and drank them at the picnic table on the platform.

Then I returned to the hotel and found two groups, later three who had retreated to the hotel restaurant - having found Carlisle too busy on an early Saturday evening.

Then, anticipating the field work on the Sunday at the cemetery  I decided an early night was called for... And I slept well.

BLS 2026 Winter Meeting at Carlisle: - Part 1 Fri

BLS 2026 Winter Meeting at Carlisle: - Part 2 - This post

BLS 2026 Winter Meeting, Carlisle: - Part 3 Sun - Cemetery Field Trip

Lichens at Carlisle Cemetery: Part 3 of The BLS 2026 Winter meeting at Carlisle

Earlier posts: 
Part 1: Friday 30 Jan - Settle to Carlisle; and first day  

Part 2: BLS 2026 Winter Meeting at Carlisle: AGM & Talks 

Part 3: BLS 2026 Winter Meeting at Carlisle: Su 1 Feb: This post

Sunday - Carlisle Cemetery Field Trip

10am Carlisle Cremetorium boundary with Carlisle Cemetery - Fay introduces the morning's instructions in respectful tone.. 

Kiar  meanwhile glaces at lichens on the adjacent seat

then we all pose for the group photo

Then we are off to the cemetery proper with grave stones. 

What better place to start than a headstone with Psilolechia lucida - well know for liking acid stones and growing in underhangs

On the other side they are looking at  Physconia - grisea or enteroxantha. ? John suggests enteroxantha. It is supposed to have bottle-brush rhizines underneath at the centre of the thallus, though it can have simple ones at the edge. Janet cuts of the edge of the thallus to reveal rhizines below.  They still don't look very bottle brushy to me - I shall revisit some of my Physconia grisea sites near Settle now and check those..

Closer up of Physconia

They are now looking at the Psilolechia side - and the Physconia is in view
at the top to us at the centre of the picture.
See the tarmac path behind them - we'll be looking at that three pictures below

Umm..

Lecidia lithophila

Lecidia lithophila

John lies down on the tarmac to record common things like Physcia caesia and Lecanora muralis then points to this white lichen - Porpidia crustulata - separated in Dobson from Porpidia macroacarpa by size of apothecia - less than 1.3 mm comes to P crustulata - but he takes a sample home to check.

See the white crustose lichen..

Hope Paul will come back with a suggestion for this.

Some Placopyrenium fuscellum  growing on Verrucaria nigrescens

Placopyrenium fuscellum 

portable digital microscope

Back for lunch at 12.

Lecanora crenularia on cement between the slate slabs on  the wall.

After lunch I search the group of people I had been with initially,  but they have gone. I use the map provided at the Crematorium and set off walking north.. and come to the Dissenters Chapel,  The roof facing north had big colonies of Rhizocarpon geographicum  and there is Porpidia tuberculosa on the butresses below.

In the bricks and cement on the right I see lots of apothecia

I think this is Lecanora albescens - but I really wish I had tested ti with C to make sure it is not L antiqua. Too late now.

No Rhizocarpon geographicum on the south facing side

View west from this chapel

To the north of this chapel is a low tombstone with a sloping roof, with two interesting lichens  - see tomb in foreground:-

On the west facing side there is abundant Cladonia polydactyla.

This is a Cladonia with red apothecia, 

Cladonia polydactyla

More Cladonia polydactyla - podetia often branched, hornlike and usually proliferating from the rim of a deformed cup. Primary squamules bluish grey with incised tips.

On the east facing slope - making flat space between the moss and the foliose lichen are patches of a crustose lichen

See the patches above, between the moss and the grey foliose lichen

Well this is one lichen I will have to think about.

Still thinking..

----------------------

Fay gives me a lift back to the station. Here I meet Joseph Halda, also waiting for a train. He buys me a coffee and we sat on the station picnic tables.

I catch the 3:20 train. I enjoy views on the way home. Down there is the meandering river Eden.. The base for the coming BLS spring meeting this  11-18 April. Above is the Pennine ridge - Dufton Pike - and other Hills above High Cup Nick .. Somewhere just beyond there is the site of Moor House a YNU trip to be held there in 1-2 Aug There are patches of snow on the tops. The train travels higher and we near the summit where the rive Swale captures catchment from the River Ure.  Weird to see "Dent", "Sheffield" and "Nottingham" - on the train announcement panel. But we pass Garsdale, Dent, Horton in Ribblesdale.. and I get off at Settle.

 ......just after 5 and get to my car - safely there - but now adorned with 15 huge bird droppings!!. I look up:- Not just tree branches above but also telephone / electric wires. I look down:- the dark tarmac.. not sure if I could see droppings .. but maybe one or two lichens - like those on the crematorium path earlier in the day. I will come back in the daylight on a warm day and check them!!.